Monday, 15 April 2013

We’re going into our fourth year at UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, and there have been quite a
few changes along the way. Since the centre was founded under the
direction of Professor Claire Warwick, Claire has also taken on Head of Department in UCL Department of Information Studies, as well as Vice Dean of Research for the Arts and Humanities faculty. Over the past year, Claire and I
have been co-directing the centre. I’m pleased, proud, and a little bit
nervous to say that from now on I’ll be taking on full operational
duties as Director of UCLDH, still working closely with Claire, who
remains committed to Digital Humanities as a subject, and UCLDH in
particular. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Claire for her
continued input into UCLDH – and I look forward to working with her in
this slightly different capacity over the next few years, as well as the
rest of the team at UCLDH, and putting my efforts into building up
UCLDH even further after its great start.

(This is the blog post I've put up on the Day of DH site - where Digital Humanists all over the world are telling people what they are up to on a specific day. Me, I'm working hard in a different way, on holiday).

This Day of DH sees me not doing much DH at all… but yet. I’m on
holiday, on the second week of the school easter break, with my three
young boys, in Scotland, staying with family. I wasn’t going to blog
anything at all – but then, hey, this is part of my life as a DHer too,
right? Its not just about the work, its about what you do elsewhere? But
can you actually switch off from DH, from work, when you are away?– at
least, it seems not that way if you are an academic.

So what did we get up to today? Not a bad night, up only three times
(two night terrors and one sea shanty) and then woken early to a boy
shouting “Mummy! Robot! Monkey!” repeatedly. A slow walk to the shop for
papers and sweeties, some playing with watering cans, a trip to a
garden centre to meet an old friend and her kid for coffee, a visit from
my Aunt. The endless cleaning and tidying and management of stuff which
comes with having three small people, roll calls to ensure people have
their shoes and their stuffed animals from one stop to the next.
Highlights included driving alongside a wind farm for a mile or so and
the boys shouting “BIG. WINDMILLS! BIG. WINDMILLS!” – lowlights include
turning my back for two minutes and seeing Twin Two up 8 feet in the air
on something he shouldn’t be climbing on in the garden centre – tuts
from other parents in the vicinity very forthcoming.

Its not like I haven’t thought about work. I find it very difficult
to switch off when on holiday – it takes me about a week to stop sending
myself emails reminding me to do X, Y, and Z when I get back. I’m on
the twitters – I find hanging out on twitter gets me through the day
when looking after the three weans all day and all night, especially if
they are up through the night – and today of all days, it was
fascinating to see twitter erupt and turn and shift around a news item.
The asynchronous nature suits having a quick shufty at quiet moments –
seconds – in the parenting day. But I haven’t been on work email for a
week or so, and wont be for another week or so. Usually I’m glued to it,
answering emails at all times of the day, but its important for me to
step back from it a few times a year. I popped on there a couple of days
ago to action something time-limited and laughed at all the emails that
had come in setting me deadlines I hadn’t agreed to that I will miss in
my absence. Meh – I’m usually quick on the mark but this week? I’m
teaching my twins how to do forward rolls instead.

As I do more and more managerial work in my role at UCL Centre for Digital Humanities
I wonder really how much of my interaction with computing is through
email. (Most of it now). I’m a professional email answerer, really.
Been a while since I implemented something myself. I wonder, amidst all
the arguments about should DHers code, etc, how the whole “can code,
but manages coders” fits in. But this week, I’m not even answering
email. Oh no. I’m on holiday. I’m away. And goodness, it is good to
step away from email, that harsh, thankless taskmistress. But if I’m not
on email…. I am a DHer any more?

But its not like I haven’t thought about work. It’s the
blessing/curse of academia: obsessive compulsive behavior is rewarded,
and its hard to switch off the obsession. So in the past week or so I’ve
been ruminating on next steps, projects I’m undertaking, research I
should do next, blog posts that are brewing, in between having cups of
tea at my grandparents or visiting my cousins or dandling poorly boys at
3am. Everything you can do when you are not on email. The nice stuff
online and offline, without the work email.

It’s not that I haven’t thought about work. Heck, I even blogged for
the Day of DH. An example of the blended life style us DHers live: how
hard it is to get away, even when you are away, how connected we all
are, how it’s all a balancing act.

So I’m not sure that this is a blog post. I’m not sure that this is a holiday. I don’t know what it is… must be DH, then.

About Melissa Terras

I'm the Professor of Digital Humanities in the Department of Information Studies, University College London, and Director of UCL Centre for Digital Humanities. I teach Digitisation, and my research focuses on the use of computational techniques to enable research in the humanities that would otherwise be impossible. My UCL webpage contains more information about publications and research projects. I also hang out at @melissaterras. This was my personal blog, and everything I said here was in a personal capacity - you can find my new blog over at melissaterras.org. I'm preserving this content to prevent bit rot, but its all replicated over the road, too - hope to see you there.